When comparing git-cola vs GitExtensions, the Slant community recommends GitExtensions for most people. In the question“What are the best Git clients for Windows?”GitExtensions is ranked 4th while git-cola is ranked 20th. The most important reason people chose GitExtensions is:

Instead of using HTTPS and authenticating every time they are pushing their code remotely, plenty of developers prefer to use SSH to communicate with the remote server and authenticate using secure key pairs.

Pros

Pro

Free software

This application is FOSS, and thus it can be freely modified & distributed.

Pro

Cross-platform

Works on Linux, Mac and Windows.

Pro

Full unicode support

Pro

Minimalist interface

Pro

Available in Homebrew

Can be easily installed through homebrew by running brew install git-cola.

Pro

SSH support

Instead of using HTTPS and authenticating every time they are pushing their code remotely, plenty of developers prefer to use SSH to communicate with the remote server and authenticate using secure key pairs.

Pro

Lightweight and fast

GitExtensions is a lightweight and fast application.

Pro

Git commands visibility

GitExtensions typically displays all commands that it carries out in a separate window. The user can also open the Gitcommand log (under Tools) and view the git commands as they interact with the program.

Pro

Great UI

GitExtensions has a simple layout, all usual functions being available without navigation menus. The branching and merging are clear and easy to follow.

Pro

Powerful commit screen

Pro

Open source

It's totally freeAnd its written and thought by developers who really know what you need as a developer. Open to contributions by everybody.

Pro

Easy to set up

Can either be set up as a shell extension, standalone tool of Visual Studio plugin, allowing developers to choose the way that suits their workflow best and is easier for them to get into.

Pro

Easy to use

Can be used as a Visual Studio plugin for developers who use it as their IDE, or as a standalone tool. Both are easy to use even for users not very familiar with git.

Pro

Useful plugins

Includes Gitflow, also has a delete obsolete branches feature which is very useful to get rid of those old branches that have already been merged. There are also other options to clean overall clutter in repositories.

Pro

Very good stash support

Easy to save, view & pop stashes.

Pro

Many advanced features made easier to use

Complex git commands such as resolving a rebase conflict or performing a subtree merge are made much easier by a helpful UI.

Pro

Allows easy setting up of scripts to enhance productivity

Pro

Plugin API

There are several out-of-the-box plugins installed with standard setup. Additional behavior customization is possible with new plugins (written in C#).

Pro

Responsiveness

Pro

Submodule support

Powerful submodule support, also when working with multiple cloned SuperRepos.

Pro

Built-in git-bash console

This makes running custom git commands quicker.

Pro

Simple global / local diff and merge support

Makes working with repos using different languages and support tools much easier.

Pro

Eases initial git configuration

The settings window on first run helps you set lots of required settings such as your commit email address.

Ad

Cons

Con

Limited feature set

You sometimes need to touch the terminal in order to get certain things done.

Con

Not truly cross-platform

GitExtensions is not truly cross-platform. It can run through mono on UNIX-based systems but this does not work as well as it does on Windows.

Con

Doesn't offer " Repo Groups"

Repo groups (best done in smart git, Git Kraken's version is also decent) is an amazing time saving feature when you work with multiple repos on a daily basis. This is the only con!

Con

UI does not render properly on Windows 10 x64

Con

UI may feel cluttered with too much information

The sheer amount of information that the UI displays by default may feel overwhelming at times, if not outright confusing.

Alternative Products

Each month, over 2.8 million people use Slant to find the best products and share their knowledge. Pick the tags you’re passionate about to get a personalized feed and begin contributing your knowledge.